Chisholm Council hears concerns during working session

CHISHOLM—An estimated 60 people, including some members of the fire department and ambulance service, gathered at the Chisholm Senior Center this past Tuesday for a working session of the Chisholm City Council.

“I would anticipate a few recommendations from staff at our next meeting,” City Administrator Ryan Pervenanze wrote in an email on Wednesday. “I think there are many areas of agreement with the council with most the important being their commitment to public safety as a whole.”

“Over the next week or so I’ll work with our EMS Director and Fire Chief as well as the council to develop a path forward,” he added.

The meeting was called at the October 28 regular council meeting, when the council tabled three potential resolutions to address a recommendation from McGrath Consulting that would prohibit any city employee, including part-time, volunteer to serve as an elected official. McGrath, in its report, categorized the adoption of such an ordinance as a Priority 1 recommendation, and identifies concerns regarding council oversight, supervision, perceived favoritism, and unconscious bias.

Much of the discussion on Tuesday wasn’t centered around that recommendation, although feedback from those who directly addressed it appeared to question the logic behind the recommendation. Members of the public who weighed in talked about the dedication of fire and EMS workers.

In March of this year the city council unanimously approved hiring McGrath to evaluate the fire department and ambulance service at a cost not to exceed $41,550.

Councilor Jedediah Holewa in November re-elected for another term on the city council and is a paramedic with the Chisholm Ambulance Service.

Mayor Adam Lantz is a member of the Chisholm Fire Department, but did not seek reelection.

“If you vote to not allow ambulance to be on the city council, how will our vote be affected when we just voted a week ago, and how will our ambulance service be adversely affected,” a former member of the ambulance service asked, questioning if the residents and her own family members be taken care of if the council should vote to prohibit elected officials from serving on the ambulance and fire department.

Chisholm Ambulance Director Tiffany Larson talked about how Holewa started out on the Chisholm Ambulance Service, and is now a full-fledged paramedic on the Chisholm service and also serves as a firefighter/paramedic with the Hibbing Fire and EMS.

“I’d hate to lose him on our roster,” she said.

In the event that happens, she assured the ambulance service will be staffed.

“Our staffing is good, we are here and we are ready,” Larson said.

Lantz on Tuesday assured what happened is “the furthest thing from bias.” The issue is a member of a department with intimate knowledge of how a department operates bringing concerns forward, he said.

“Me standing there and saying we need accountability and evaluation and review is not bias,” Lantz insisted. “That’s me being critical of the department that I am proud of, that I am terribly sad that I am terribly sad to see the way that it has deteriorated over the course of those seven years.”

Lantz presented the council with 57-pages of documentation from the past two years, including communications which he said were between himself and the city administrator, city staff, fire chief, and the fire department training committee. Along with that documentation, Lantz presented a 12-page summary.

Of the concerns aired on Tuesday, Lantz brought up were missed opportunities for firefighter training and the department not using allocated funding from the Minnesota Board of Firefighter Training for such training. In 2025 the department was awarded $6,192 from MBFT and only spent $4,806, according to an email written by Lantz in October of this year.

Lantz said he ended up paying out of pocket for trainings.

Firefighter Stephanie Holewa, a firefighter on the Chisholm Fire Department for more than 20 years now, said standards in the city fire service overall have slipped in the past couple of years.

The most senior member of the fire department, Holewa concurred with a member of the public who spoke prior to her that the department could benefit from keeping current on firefighter training.

Holewa called for respectful communication, and an environment where everyone works together, regardless of their personal feelings toward one another.

“We don’t have to be best buddies, we don’t have to have cliques,” she said. “We should all feel safe there—you’ve got my back, I’ve got yours, and everyone can go home.”

Pervenanze acknowledged there are other things he’d rather be working on, including housing, jobs, manufacturing.

“But things like this happen, and it’s not one person’s fault, not one groups fault,” he said. “It came out, everything is out in the open, and now we have to fix it. That’s you hire a person in my position to take care of these internal issues. I’m here to help.”

Pervenanze said he’s willing to go to bat with any of the department heads, but he’s also not afraid to let them know if he doesn’t necessarily agree with them.

“We are all going to disagree, but it’s how we respond to that and move forward,” he said.

Ahead of the working session, Pervenanze said he did “his homework” talking to Ambulance Director Tiffany Larson, Fire Chief Jason Worlie, and regulatory agencies.

Pervenanze of the EMS workers, said, “They are underpaid, and they don’t get told thank you enough.”

To the city council’s credit, they have pretty much given the ambulance, police, and fire what they want, Pervenanze noted.

“That’s kudos to all of you,” he said, while acknowledging there are always improvements that could be made.

“The next step is that willingness to have constructive conversations and this internal tension or whatever anybody wants to call it, it can end tomorrow,” he said.

Pervenanze noted the council as a whole is his boss, and he works at the direction of the council. At the same time, day-to-day operations and making sure that department heads and staff across the city have the tools to do their jobs at a high level is where he steps in.

“We all care,” Pervenanze said, noting the mix of audience including residents wanting to get more information, department heads from other departments, etc. in attendance. “We’re here because we care.”

Pervenanze said one of his recommendations for council is that he reevaluates any complaint that has been made.

“My door is always open,” Pervenanze said.

Pervenanze said he is talking to the EMS director, fire chief, department heads, and the city attorney to make sure that things are being done to follow the law and do things the proper way. Barring any direction from the council to the contrary, he plans to continue.

“The passion is great, and it just has to be constructive moving forward,” Pervenanze said. “Again, let me do my job, let me work with the people you put in place to lead these departments, and I think everybody will be very happy with the results, and I think we’ll all be better for it.”